Milking Anemic Goat

CarolynRenee · #1 03/22/11, 04:57 PM

Long story made "kinda" short:
Doe gave birth to triplets over a week ago. She's not off her feed, not acting weird or anything, but definately hadn't bagged up like last year. She's also lost some weight. I foolishly attributed it to being pregnant & kidding. Did the eyelid check & she's anemic. Not white, but definately pale pink. She had been wormed, wormed again & now on Vit. B Complex, Red Cell, etc, to get her Iron levels up again.

So there's some background, but my questions is:

Since she's raising three doelings and not in "top" condition, should I forgoe milking her? I normally lock the kids up at night after two weeks & then take the morning milk, but since she's not healthy I was wondering if I should let the kids have access to her milk 24/7 until they are weaned.

And.....after they are weaned, should I just let her dry up in order for her to put her energy into gaining weight back instead of making milk for me?

The past five kiddings have been perfect & she was a great, heavy milker with the exception of this year. I'd rather give up a year of milk than have her in ill health for the rest of her life.

LomahAcres · #2 03/22/11, 05:09 PM

For high worm loads, you can worm them 3 times, 10 days a part. What did you use to worm her with? Make sure it's something that works. If she is terribly underweight, I would pull a kid and bottle it and leave her with the 2. If you want to milk after the kids are weaned - maybe just not milk her all the way out, she can put some energy into weight gain. We had one kid out underweight and only milked her out half way each time - but we don't dam raise, in about a month we were seeing enough weight gain to go back to milking her all the way out. Might put her on CMPK for an extra boost.

Cannon_Farms · #3 03/22/11, 05:53 PM

Worm her with something like pyrentel first go around then move onto quest aka cydectin. Since you will have a withdrawl let the kids nurse, if shes able to nurse three kids then shes doing all any goat needs to be doing, wean and continue milking her she should be fine by weaning.
Copper of course helps with barber pole worms which is the whole reason i use it here.

CarolynRenee · #4 03/22/11, 06:09 PM

She had been given her copper bolus the end of October 2010. Should I be giving it to her more than once a year to help with the barber pole worms?

CarolynRenee · #5 03/22/11, 06:30 PM

Also, is there any benefit (or can you even use) to putting crushed Iron tablets (mfg. for human consumption) in their feed?

They already have a generic livestock salt / mineral block as well as a goat block.

Alice In TX/MO · #6 03/22/11, 06:35 PM

Copper boluses are usually given four times a year here.

Mineral blocks are not very effective for goats because they have smooth tongues. They need a good loose mineral, like Cargill's Right Now - Onyx.

The Red Cell takes care of iron. Don't give her human supplements for that.

Cannon_Farms · #7 03/22/11, 06:37 PM

I do it twice a year but it would depend on your copper levels in soil and feed stuff.
Redcell is a good building block high in iron and selenium and other things. Because Iron is toxic at certain levels and Im not a chemist or a vet I can not advise to use human tablets. I can say in last ditch efforts i have used injectable Iron made for pigs but at 3ccs every 3 days.

Get rid of the cause and your goat can pretty much mend herself. Unless shes at that very very pale pink to white stage that is.

Cannon_Farms · #8 03/22/11, 06:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alice In TX/MO

Copper boluses are usually given four times a year here.

Mineral blocks are not very effective for goats because they have smooth tongues. They need a good loose mineral, like Cargill's Right Now - Onyx.

The Red Cell takes care of iron. Don't give her human supplements for that.

Not to mention they are 96-99% salt so when they say trace minerals they really mean trace, and I have not used those in so long but I dont think they have any iron in them.